Amazon seems to be planning to hit a new low for tablet pricing with the launch of a new Kindle Fire HD 7-inch model that will be priced at just $99. Yes, the pricing, which has been long dominated by crappy Chinese tablets, will now also be able to get you an Amazon 7-inch tablet.
According to a report in Techcrunch, the tablet will sport a Texas Instruments (TI) made processor and 7-inch 1280x800p resolution display, similar to the current generation Kindle Fire HD display.
There is no word on when this tablet might reach stores, but we would expect to see it along with next generation of Kindle Fire tablets, which should ideally be announced in the second half of the year.
How can Amazon achieve this price-point?
Special offers: Amazon has already been employing its advertising program ‘Special Offers’ in the last generation of Kindle Fire tablets, to get the pricing down, and it could always do the same with $99 Kindle Fire HD version.
Cheap chips from TI: We have been hearing about Texas Instruments’ plans to exit smartphone/tablet chip business and as we have seen in past, Amazon has deep ties with TI. In the case of TI really leaving the chip business, Amazon might be planning to get the remaining chip inventory from TI at a very cheap price – giving it the much-needed margin to price the new tablet at $99.
Also the recent budget tablet launches from Acer and Asus have shown that it is not really that hard to launch a decent Android tablet at a low-price point. And after all, Amazon is not after the hardware business profits but these tablets are going to act as the extended marketplace for the retail giant.
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